Chevron to pick up 5 pc stake in RPL for $300 m
Mumbai, April 12Reliance Industries announced today that US energy major Chevron will pick a 5 per cent stake in Reliance Petroleum Ltd for $300 million, representing the first major infusion of FDI in the country’s robust refining sector.

Rel WebWorld during day, BPO at night
Chandigarh, April 12
Reliance WebWorlds in Punjab and Haryana are in for an role changeover. From being hi-tech Net cafes, these will now double up as small Business Process Outsourcing
units, during night hours.

Simplified IT law in offing
Nagpur, April 12
A new and simplified income tax law is in the offing and the government is working on a comprehensive legislation to replace the cumbersome and voluminous Income Tax Act.

A stockbroker watches his computer screen in a brokerage company at the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Share prices plunged 2.63 per cent, the sharpest one-day decline in nearly two years, as overseas funds sold software company stocks. Sensex closed down 306.82 points at 11,355.73. — AFP

Film actress Soha Ali Khan speaks at a function to launch the
summer collection of Indian fashion house, Globus, in Mumbai
on Wednesday. — AFP

Airtel signs pact with Bridge Mobile
New Delhi, April 12
Seamless roaming in the Asia Pacific region would no longer be a problem with
Airtel today announcing a tie-up with the eight-member Bridge Mobile Alliance.

Singapore courts Punjab tourists
Ludhiana, April 12
Punjab is a key focus market for Singapore, which is expecting a significant rise in tourist arrivals from the state this year.

India, Kabul ink pact to boost trade
New Delhi, April 12
Afghanistan and India today signed a memorandum of understanding to promote bilateral trade and Indian investment in Afghanistan. The MoU was signed between the CII and the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency
in the presence of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

Cyprus beckons Indian investors
New Delhi, April 12
Supporting India’s demand for permanent membership at the UN Security Council, Cyprus Prime Minister Tassos Papadopoulos today suggested the setting up of a high level committee to identify the areas of common interest where the two countries could increase their economic and trade cooperation.

Mumbai, April 12
Reliance Industries announced today that US energy major Chevron will pick a 5 per cent stake in Reliance Petroleum Ltd for $300 million, representing the first major infusion of FDI in the country’s robust refining sector.

The purchase, subject to approvals from the regulatory authorities, would be made by Chevron India Holdings Pte Ltd, Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, RIL said today.

The announcement comes a day ahead of the opening of RPL’s IPO to raise nearly Rs 8,370 crore. RPL, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is building a Rs 27,000- crore refinery in Jamnagar in Gujarat.

Announcing the agreement under which Chevron would pick a 5 per cent stake in RPL and signing of two other MoUs, RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said: “The agreement and the MoUs between Chevron and Reliance will be the first step in establishing a strong partnership with one of the world’s largest and most respected companies.” The agreement provides Chevron with the option to increase the stake to 29 per cent in RPL.

Of the two MoUs, the first sets out the principles of partnership by which the company and Chevron plan to optimise the crude supply and product offtake and marketing of the RPL refinery. Besides, RIL and Chevron would jointly evaluate application of mutually selected refinery technology.

The other MoU envisages cooperation between the two to set up a technology development centre in the country.

“We are very pleased to have forged this relationship with Reliance... This underscores the importance of Asia to Chevron generally and India specifically,” Chevron Chairman and Chief Executive Office Dave O’Reilly said in a joint statement issued by RIL.

The 27 million tonnes per annum refinery, located in the Jamnagar SEZ is being set up for exports. Reliance Petroleum plans to convert the bulk of gasoline from its proposed SEZ refinery into high octane gasoline and export it to the US.

Petrol and diesel will make up for 80 per cent of the products produced by Reliance Petroleum. Typically, 70 per cent of the output will constitute auto fuels.

Earlier in the day, company officials said RPL was likely to list on stock exchanges between May 5-10.

The company has fixed a price band of Rs 57-62 for the public offer, which is hitting the market tomorrow to raise about Rs 8,370 crore.

Mukesh Ambani has emerged as the second largest shareholder in RPL after Reliance Industries, according to the final prospectus filed by Reliance Petroleum. The shares are held by Mukesh Ambani-owned Fidelity Shares and Securities Pvt Ltd, which owns 2.38 per cent of RPL shares.
— PTI, UNI

Chandigarh, April 12
Reliance WebWorlds in Punjab and Haryana are in for an role changeover. From being hi-tech Net cafes, these will now double up as small Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units, during night hours.

After a successful pilot project in Hyderabad and Meerut, where BPOs are now operational, Reliance WebWorld has decided to offer its 22 WebWorlds (12 in Punjab, seven in Haryana and three in Chandigarh) for setting up small BPOs. The cyber cafe- cum- coffee shop chain will rent out its premises for 10 hours at night (10 am to 8 am) for running the call centre or BPO.

Senior officials in the company said that any entrepreneur can hire a Reliance WebWorld’s ready infrastructure without bothering about capital expenditure.

Since Reliance WebWorlds are registered with special approval to operate 24x7 as an IT-enabled service, the BPOs will be saved of the hassles in getting licences from Labour department for operation at night. “To operate from the WebWorld, one has to hire a minimum of 12 seats, and will have to pay Rs 9,000 per month for every seat (around Rs 1 lakh for the operation). The number of PCs in each WebWorld in the region vary from 15 to 42. Additionally entrepreneurs have the flexibility of not being bound by any contract for a specific time period. They can use it for a month or they can use it for three months and discontinue,” said a top official in the Punjab, Haryana and Himachal circle.

At present, Reliance WebWorld’s are open between 10 am and 10 pm, catering to Internet surfers, e-mail users, travelling salespersons, gamers, video-conferencing, for e-learning classes and “uplinking” television journalists or for all-night gaming.

Company officials say that they found a demand from small call centres and BPO operations that land temporary assignments but do not want to expand their facilities. They say that they are looking at BPOs who have spill- over work from peak hour traffic, for which they want temporary reinforcements and facilities.

Nagpur, April 12
A new and simplified income tax law is in the offing and the government is working on a comprehensive legislation to replace the cumbersome and voluminous Income Tax Act.

Indicating this, Finance Minister P Chidamabaram today said four working groups set up to provide inputs for
drafting a new income tax legislation would submit their reports by this month-end.

The Finance Minister had announced in last year’s budget that a new comprehensive Income Tax Bill would be drafted by 2005-end to replace the archaic law as part of tax reforms.

However, this got delayed a bit and the working group was now in the process of giving finishing touches to their reports.

Addressing a function of the National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT) here, he also stressed up on the need for change in attitude while dealing with taxpayers.

Later at a discussion, Mr Chidambaram also emphasised the government’s commitment to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI).

“FDI is nothing but savings of other countries. In our country, savings is to the tune of 29 per cent (of GDP) and these savings can be invested in public and private sectors. Savings bring investments, (and) investments bring more jobs and prosperity,” he said.

If the country has to push up its growth rate by 1 or 2 per cent to achieve 9-10 per cent economic growth, India’s savings rate of 29 per cent and investment rate of 31 per cent need to be pushed up by 3 to 4 per cent.

This additional 3 to 4 per cent could come only by attracting FDI, which is nothing but savings of other countries.
— PTI

New Delhi, April 12
JCT Ltd plans to invest Rs 300 crore to modernise and expand the capacity of its plants in Punjab at Phagwara and Hoshiarpur.

“We are raising Rs 300 crore for modernising and augmenting JCT businesses in Punjab, both cotton fabric and nylon yarn plants at Phagwara and Hoshiarpur. For this, we have issued $30 million (approximately Rs 134 crore) of unsecured five year FCCBs with a coupon of 2.5 per annum payable on a semi-annual basis,” said Mr Samir Thapar, Vice-President and Managing Director of the company. The FCCBs would be convertible at an initial conversion price of Rs 14.80 per share, and would be listed at the BSE.

In addition, JCT was also raising approximately Rs 170 crore from Indian banks under the technology upgradation fund that entitled the company to an interest subsidy of 5 per cent per annum on all loans used to modernise its facilities.

JCT Electronics Ltd, another company of the Thapar Group, which had a colour picture tube manufacturing plant at Mohali, has shifted its production to Gujarat.

Its other operations include filament yarn, steel wires and wire ropes, and overseas operations include a textile mill in Malaysia and offices in Singapore and Dubai.

Mr Thapar said the company’s
tie-up with Nike had driven the company to set up a manufacturing facility for 100 per cent synthetic fabrics in nylon and polyester. This project would be the first of its kind in India, he said, and help the group integrate its nylon yarn business.

JCT was also planning to set up a grassroots nylon plant with a chips making capacity of 45 MT per day and yarn spinning capacity of 12 MT per day. This would increase its total capacity for chip making to 90 MT per day and yarn making to 57 MT per day. The annual capacity at the filament plant after the proposed expansion would be around 31,000 MT, and was expected to become operational by mid 2007-08.

The company, which employs over 7000 employees at its plants in Phagwara and
Hoshiarpur, is also planning to add manpower for additional capacity. Once all these projects were commissioned, said Mr Thapar, JCT hoped to double its turnover and triple EBIDTA from the existing levels.

To meet its growing demand for power and to bring down costs, he said, the company had recently commissioned a 5 MW rice-husk based captive power plant at its textile facility in Phagwara. The construction of a 6 MW rice husk-based captive power plant was under way at the nylon yarn plant in Hoshiarpur and was expected to become operational by September.

New Delhi, April 12
Seamless roaming in the Asia Pacific region would no longer be a problem with Airtel today announcing a tie-up with the eight-member Bridge Mobile Alliance.

“Regional services of the alliance will be available to all Airtel customers when they are on roaming in the APAC region, as well as to international roamers from member operators of the BMA,’’ Airtel (Mobility) Joint President Sanjay Kapoor said here. The services include bridge Roaming, prepaid, enterprise and Bridge Conceirge.

“We will increase the number of bridge prepaid top-up counters in India from three to 50 and also plan to extend the bridge conceirge services in India to 10 cities from the existing three,’’ Mr Kapoor said.

Bridge Mobile CEO Patrick Sim said the BMA would invest up to $40 million over the next three years to build and establish a shared mobile infrastructure and to deliver a wider range of regional mobile services.

Ludhiana, April 12
Punjab is a key focus market for Singapore, which is expecting a significant rise in tourist arrivals from the state this year. Besides leisure, it is the business class, which is finding Singapore an attractive destination to hold conferences and seminars.

“In the first two months of this year, there was a 40 per cent growth in comparison to last year in the number of tourists who went from this part of India to Singapore. We are expecting a double-digit growth in visitor traffic this year,” Ms Siew Kheng, Director, International Relations, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said.

Ms Kheng said visitor arrivals from the state in 2005 were 6,000, which was 52 per cent higher compared to the previous year. “The growth is encouraging, particularly from cities of Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar. To further this growth, the STB has come out with attractive offers for travel agents and packages for visitors, and events to generate awareness among people.”

While visits for leisure capture 60 per cent of the total, business visits are growing rapidly and hold a 30 per cent share in the number of tourists visiting Singapore. “Apart from promoting the country as a destination for leisure, we now aim to market it as a place that can be a destination for healthcare, good education and most importantly, business. The infrastructure to hold conferences, seminars and business events is quite strong and STB is keen on promoting the same.”

New Delhi, April 12
Afghanistan and India today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote bilateral trade and Indian investment in Afghanistan. The MoU was signed between the CII and the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) in the presence of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

Mr Karzai, on his state visit to India, is particularly interested in attracting more investments and companies into Afghanistan.

With this latest MoU between CII and AISA, frequency of activities, seminars, courses, road shows for promotion of Indian investment in different centres of India and conferences are set to intensify.
— UNI

New Delhi, April 12
Supporting India’s demand for permanent membership at the UN Security Council, Cyprus Prime Minister Tassos Papadopoulos today suggested the setting up of a high level committee to identify the areas of common interest where the two countries could increase their economic and trade cooperation.

Speaking at an interactive session organised by the CII, FICCI and Assocham here today, Mr Papadopoulos invited Indian investors to invest in his country. He said that despite deep wounds inflicted by the Turkish invasion in 1974 the people of Cyprus had “since then performed an economic miracle which had led to Cyprus getting a membership of the Europian Union since May, 2001.”

He said that his country was mostly known for its services sector and it needed a lot of investment in technology, innovation and research. This was a business opportunity for India as Cyprus provided a gateway to the markets of Europe.

The company also informed the final tranche amounting to $10 million of HFCL’s $43 million FCCB offering has been allotted on April 10.

The first tranche of $33 million was allotted on March 7. This completes the company’s FCCB fund raising programme, split into two tranches of $33 and $10 million respectively, aggregating to $43 million.

Satyam pact

Satyam Computer Services Ltd has entered into a partnership with New Zealand- based Optimation, a software and technology services company, to enhance local and international capabilities of both firms for maximising their use of technology.

Optimation will be the exclusive representative for Satyam in New Zealand, it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The partnership is built on a six-year working relationship between Optimation and Satyam, which has resulted in the development of the ‘equip utilities billing’ software suite, it said.

The combined area of expertise of both companies include business intelligence and data warehousing, enterprise solutions, IT and business process outsourcing, service and asset
management, it added.

BEL order

ORG Informatics Ltd today said it has bagged Rs 170-crore order from Bharat Electronics Ltd for convergent billing system in MTNL.

The order relates to services part for convergent billing system in MTNL covering installation and commissioning and facility management, it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

ACC net up

Cement major Associated Cement Companies Ltd (ACC) has posted a profit after tax at Rs 235.48 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2006 whereas the same was Rs 165.52 crore for the same period last year.

The company’s total income was at Rs 1,381.22 crore for the first quarter against Rs 1155.02 crore for the same period last year, ACC informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The results of the current quarter are not comparable with the same period last year as they include figures of erstwhile Bargarh Cement Ltd and Damodhar Cement and Slag Ltd which were merged with the company from April 1, 2005, and also because ACC had divested its refractory business on September 30, 2005.

On consolidated basis, the group posted a profit after tax of Rs 231.34 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2006 whereas the same Rs 182.24 crore for the same quarter last year.

Mastek profit

Mastek has posted a net profit of Rs 12.29 crore for the quarter ended March 31, this year as compared to Rs 12.40 crore for the corresponding quarter previous year.

Announcing the result, the company said its total income has increased from Rs 89.62 crore in Q3 FY 04-05 to Rs 102.26 crore for Q3 FY 05-06.

As per the consolidated result, the group has posted a net profit after minority interest of Rs 17.31 crore for Q3 as compared to Rs 13.76 crore for the Q3 FY 04-05.

Air ArabiaDubai, April 12
Sharjah-based low-budget carrier Air Arabia today announced new service to Jaipur and Kochi and said it would connect the UAE to more destinations in India. The proposed daily flight to Jaipur is scheduled to take off mid-May, the exact date of which is to be announced later, while the Kochi service, to start from May 1, will operate four times a week till May 19 and converted into a daily flight from May 20, the airlines said.
— PTI

Shree RenukaMumbai, April 12
Shree Renuka Sugars today said it would acquire assets of a 23 MW power plant from Sarita Sugars for Rs 39.72 crore. The company would relocate the assets of the plant to its Karnataka unit and Haldia Refinery, Shri Renuka informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The Board, in its meeting held today, also approved an increase in the limit of investment by Foreign Financial Institutions in the company to up to 49 per cent.
— PTI

Cipla GDRMumbai, April 12
Pharma major Cipla Ltd has raised $170 million through issue of over one crore Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) that will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The over 1.10 crore GDRs were placed through a book building exercise and each GDR was priced at $15.39 each.
— PTI

Spice plan for post-paid segmentChandigarh, April 12
Spice Telecom today introduced a new plan for its post-paid customers with the call rate of 10 paise per minute for ‘Spice to Spice’ local calls, a company press note said here. The plan, with monthly rent of Rs 300, also carries 600 minutes of free talktime to any local GSM mobile, the press note said. The excess calls would be charged at 10 paise per minute for Spice to Spice, 50 paise per minute to any other GSM network and Re 1 to any other local phone in Punjab, including landline.
— PTI

Clariant opens lab in PanipatPanipat, April 12
Clariant India Ltd, a subsidiary of the Clariant International Ltd, today opened its first regional laboratory here to meet the growing technical demands of the textile export houses of the region. The laboratory was inaugurated by, Head (Marketing) Fashion and Apparel Beate Plueckhan. The company has planned to set up such labs at Surat, Bangalore and Tirpur at an estimated cost of Rs 2 crore.
— PTI

Media Video buys firm for Rs 85 crMumbai, April 12
Electronic goods and cassettes manufacturer Delhi-based Media Video (MVL) today said it has acquired a company for Rs 85 crore along with its residential project in Himachal Pradesh. The project would add Rs 20.25 crore to the bottom line of the company over he next two years, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
— PTI

Airtel slashes ratesChandigarh, April 12
Airtel has announced a reduction in its local call rates to 75 paise per minute for its post-paid customers in Punjab. The reduced rates are valid for all local calls made to cellphones as well as landlines. At present, the local call rates for cellphones and landlines range from Rs 1.10 to Rs 1.90 per minute.
— TNS

Frankfinn opens centreAmritsar, April 12
The boom in the aviation industry has resulted in the growing demand of trained manpower with more than 25,000 skilled youth required all over the country in near future. Disclosing this at the inauguration of 60th centre of the Frankfinn Institute of airhostess training here, Chairman K.S. Kohli said the aviation industry was growing at a rate of 25 to 30 per cent annually. He said a number of airlines, both domestic and international, were outsourcing their manpower from India. He said that Frankfinn had been short-listed to be the official recruiting institute for aviation manpower. Mr Kohli said Frankfinn was opening six more centres abroad, including at Dubai, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Bahrain.
— OC